The Most Dangerous Thing

March 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Family, mental health, and sexual awakening all combine for an honest and enjoyable read. Sydney is struggling with depression and social anxiety. Other people are unpredictable and messy, especially when sex is involved, and she'd rather just hide in her closet and work toward a future where she can live alone and go biking whenever she wants. Biking helps lift the fog she fights every day. In the present, however, she must contend with a boy who makes her feel new things, her sister's mortifying production of The Vagina Monologues, and her Zeyda's declining health. Luckily for Syd, she has lots of support and professional help. Lieberman has crafted an engaging novel that takes mental illness seriously while presenting it as manageable, especially with professional help. The time Sydney spends with her supportive Jewish family and her dawning understanding of her parents and sister as individuals will make this complex character relatable to many teens. The protagonist's revelations about sex, her body, and feminism are developmentally appropriate, and many struggling teens will appreciate that Sydney continues to process these issues. Lieberman's story of a girl living with depression as she moves into womanhood will be a hit with fans of Sarah Dessen and Christine Heppermann. VERDICT Recommended for most school and public libraries.-Elizabeth Saxton, Tiffin, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2017
An eleventh-grade girl wants to start a relationship but is stymied by depression and anxiety.Syd knows her depression isn't really out of control, like some people's. She can usually manage the crushing fog that weighs her down: tricking herself into getting out of bed by playing the phone game; biking around Vancouver, British Columbia, until she's exhausted; investing online with her cantankerous grandfather; eating just enough to get by. It works well enough until her lab partner, Paul, starts texting and flirting. Syd would respond in kind if she could, but she's afraid to make eye contact or have conversations with new people--how could she possibly start a relationship? Fading into the background would be ideal, but her gregarious family has other plans. Her mother, revitalizing the family Passover celebration, ropes Syd into embarrassing Jewish singalongs. Worse, Syd's vivacious sister wants to perform The Vagina Monologues for the school drama festival, and she's written her own monologue--one that uses "the c-word"! The oozing darkness that dominates Syd's thoughts is authentically represented in her present-tense narration and appropriately addressed with professional mental health treatment. Frustratingly, however, Syd's nervousness about romantic and sexual intimacy is pathologized as a curable symptom of her mental illness. An approachable, earnest, feel-good romance between a white Jewish girl and a Chinese-Canadian immigrant boy provides the flavor for a tale of recovery and empowerment. (Fiction. 13-15)

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